Last year I was having a casual discussion about
Christmas plans with a friend of mine. She is a successful sales executive
of apparently rather material bent and generally unexpressed religion or spirituality
so her response surprised me. She told me that she had very little interest
in the holidays. "I never understood what a fat man in a red suit has
to do with Jesus." she said rather emphatically. I had never thought
of it exactly that way before but it certainly was a powerful echo of the
way I myself have come to feel. In this most important holiday season even
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has become more visible than Jesus and, other
than an occasional nativity scene, the religious symbols of Christmas have
all but disappeared along with their significance.

It seems that the pendulum has swung once more.
Contemporary materialism has now almost fully returned Christmas to its original
status, that of a pagan celebration. We have almost totally lost the meaning
of holiday which is "holy day." In modern Japan this "holiday"
has no traditional or religious meaning at all; it is merely about the buying
and exchanging of gifts. Beginning around Thanksgiving we are bombarded by
the media with economic reports about Christmas sales figures and it seems
as if the fate of the nation hangs on how much the cash registers ring. "Buy,
buy, buy!" is the refrain of the modern Christmas carol. In ancient Rome,
the festival of Saturnalia was celebrated at the winter solstice, which occurs
in our modern calendar around December 21-22. This was a time of partying,
drinking and general debauchery; this part of the tradition certainly continues
today to which we have added the commercial feature.

The early Christians adopted this time to celebrate
the birth of Jesus so that they would go unnoticed among the loud and boisterous
pagan festivities. The meaning of the word Christmas is, quite obviously,
Christ Mass and mass is the celebration of the Eucharist or Last Supper. Interestingly,
the word eucharist is directly from a Greek word meaning gratitude.
Here Jesus and his closest and most beloved gathered to celebrate and express
gratitude for his presence and teachings. It is also a celebration, although
this is little acknowledged and has been mostly obscured, of his soon-to-be-demonstrated
resurrection, leading us all to a new possibility for being. In Christian
tradition there is the period of Advent (from the Greek meaning coming)
beginning on St. Andrew's Day, the first Sunday after Thanksgiving. This is
meant to be a period of quiet and inner observance, traditionally a period
of fasting and penance. The outer fasting, though, was merely an external
symbol of an inner fasting from the thoughts and activities of the world and,
as with many of our symbols which have become idols unto themselves, we now
summarily throw them out as anachronistic. Thus Christmas has once again become
hedonistic revelry, externally and commercially oriented, filled with the
same drunken debauchery (both literally and figuratively) as Saturnalia. The
real meaning of quiet contemplation has been lost among the shops, the liquor
stores and the malls.

No one can seriously contend that the historical
birth of Jesus of Nazareth was on or anywhere near the winter solstice. It
is interesting to note, however, that the date finally selected is
the third day after the Sun (Son?) has descended to the lowest point in the
sky of the northern hemisphere, at an astronomical point known as 0 Capricorn.
Mythologically this point is associated with Saturn, hence Saturnalia. Saturn,
in Roman myth, is the King of the Earth and the word Saturn has its earliest
roots in stem which is also related to "Satan", known in Christianity
as the Prince of the Earth. So that, on December 25, on the third day after
the descent into hell, the Sun (Son?) has once again risen.

The Jesus myth (and please understand that the
use of the word myth is in no way intended to depreciate or disparage
the man or the message, only to point out that the actual historical details
of the life of this man are sketchy and subject to much speculation. Whoever
he was, he continues to be my personal role model) is about the resurrection
of Man, the whole of humanity. It is about bringing to manifestation the Christ
child which lies dormant and unrecognized within each and every one of us.
It is about demonstrating the qualities so clearly taught by the character
Jesus.

For this reason Christmas is not about worshipping
the man himself or the supposed details of his earthly birth. Certainly we
need be grateful for the fact that someone, regardless of his beginnings,
name or details, was born and dramatically demonstrated a possibility for
all of Mankind. He preached very little; he rarely went to a synagogue; he
taught by example. Can we say that of our modern clergy? I suspect that, if
this man were to return in the manner which many expect, that he would be
as fond of the church which has been founded and operated in his name for
almost 2000 years as he was of the Sadducees and the Pharisees of his day.
His behavior toward most churches would probably be very similar to how he
behaved in the temples of his time. And he would see, in this season which
celebrates his birth (as the Christ Consciousness, always among us, sees),
that we have learned very little from the actual message of his life.

Also, Christmas is not about "STUFF".
Throughout the Christmas season we teach our children "I want, I want,
I want" emphasizing the getting aspect and further underscoring the feeling
of lack and deprivation among a large portion of our populace. In addition
we are beginning to discover that the high pressure spending frenzy and the
resultant "charge card hangover" in January and February produce
tremendous stress and depression. Christmas is not about buying and getting;
it is about gratitude and giving. True giving, however, is not necessarily
material and has no expectation of receiving. It is a natural flow from a
giver who gives only from his need to give, as a cow needs to give her milk
which is overflowing.... my cup runneth over. Is this the current spirit?
A friend of mine recently asked his new Thai-born daughter-in-law, who has
spoken English for only about a year what she wanted for Christmas. Her reply
was, "I want your heart, Papa." We have much to learn from this
young one who grew up in a Buddhist culture.

Many here spend as much as a month's pay on
Christmas "gifts." Would you be willing to give a month of your
time, of your self? Jesus possibly never gave anyone "STUFF", but
he gave his life to demonstrate a real potential for Man. How much of your
life have you given, freely, without expectation, compensation (of any kind),
or even any feeling of self-satisfaction and pride; purely and simply for
the joy of giving? Where is the real Spirit of Christmas?

In this busy and hectic holiday season, please
join me at least for a moment in remembering that holiday really means
"holy day" and that this particular holy day celebrates much more
than the historical birth of a man in Bethlehem almost 2000 years ago. It
can and must symbolize the birth of the eternal living Christ in the minds
and hearts of each and every one of us. This inner joy far exceeds the temporary
elation of getting "STUFF." It is our only real hope. Amen.